The Urban Electorate: Why Republicans Can’t Afford to Concede the City Vote Ever Again

Now that we know President Obama managed to win decisive victories not just in the Electoral College but also likely in the popular vote, much of today will be spent figuring out what went wrong for the Republican Party, and how they’ll need to change their thinking to reflect the country’s current demographics and remain competitive on a national level. That the GOP can’t ever again rely on just the white vote is already a popular refrain. They can’t keep alienating women with weird rape comments. They have to find some way to appeal to Latinos. And they surely have to rewrite their middle class agenda in such a way that it actually connects with middle class voters.

To each of those points I’ll add one that I suspect actually encompasses them all (OK, maybe not the weird rape stuff): Republicans can never again concede all of the urban vote to the Democrats.

We already know the population trends here: After decades of declines, our cities are now growing faster than our suburbs. We’re also well on our way to becoming a majority-minority nation, with our major metro areas serving as ground zero for the shift.

GET MORE STORIES LIKE THIS

IN YOUR INBOX!

Sign up for our daily email and get the stories everyone is talking about.